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Search Engines

   Types of search engines     Search tips

Click on any of the search engines below to start a search.

Subject Directories Search Engines Meta Search Engines

Yahoo

Look Smart

Yahooligans

 Google

Alta Vista

Hot Bot

 Vivisimo

Webcrawler

Dogpile
 

Other search engines which can be useful when searching on the internet.

  • Searchopolis  -  more student research orientated
  • MSN  -  run by Microsoft
  • Infoseek  -  also known as Go network and is partnered with ABC, Disney and ESPN
  • Snap.com  -  partnered with NBC
  • About.com  -  also known as MiningCo
  • 37.com  -  a site where you can type in the information you are looking for and then select a search engine to use to find the information.

 

The three major types of search engines.

Subject Directories - These rely on submissions from users and Web site owners to add to their indexes. It's important to understand that a subject directory will not have links to every piece of information on the Internet. Since they are built by humans (rather than by computer programs), they are much smaller than search engine databases.

Search Engines - These use "spiders"  or "robots" to index Web sites. Internet search engines (eg Google, AltaVista) help users find web pages on a given subject. The search engines maintain databases of web sites and collect information, which is then indexed by the search engine.

Meta Search Engines - A meta search engine is a search tool that doesn't create its own database of information, but instead searches those of other engines. "Metacrawler", for instance, searches the databases of each of the following engines: Lycos, WebCrawler, Excite, AltaVista, and Yahoo. Using multiple databases will mean that the search results are more comprehensive, but slower to obtain.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of each type of Search Engine

Subject Directories - If you're browsing and trying to determine what's available in your subject area, start out by selecting a subject directory like Yahoo or a human-powered directory which depends on humans for its listings. A search looks for matches only in the descriptions submitted.  

Advantages

Disadvantages 

  • Similar types of websites grouped together 
  • Human involvement provides a level of filtering and quality control. 
  •  Subject designations may be confusing or wrong. 
  • Never contains full text of the web they link to - you can only search what you see titles, descriptions, subject categories, etc.
  • Human-labor intensive process limits database currency, size, rate of growth and timeliness. 

Search Engines - If you're looking for a specific piece of information, go to a search engine such as Google.

Advantages Disadvantages
  • Offers a larger searchable database of web sites. 
  • The full text of individual web pages is often searchable.  
  • Great for searching very obscure terms or phrases.
  • No human quality control to weed out problems, duplicates, or junk. 
  •  The enormous size of the database can lead to high numbers of search results. 
  •  Search command languages can often be complex and confusing.

  Meta Search Engines. If you are looking for all the information you can find on a subject, try a Meta search engine such as Metacrawler use more than one search engine to search a single search query simultaneously.  

Advantages

Disadvantages 

  • No need to re-type your search into different search engines. 
  • A great way to decide which sites to search in depth.
  • The default search mode differs from search site to search site. 
  • Often like one stop shopping - good idea but often overwhelming. 

 

 

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